13 and counting
Sufficient sleep has eluded me lately, but it’s not been all bad; a tired, loopy mind is a fertile place for brainstorming to occur. I sat down this morning and wrote outlines for each of the secondary characters’ arcs, all four of them. I won’t include at least half of what I wrote down, because it’ll be happening off-screen, but I’m finding it to be an incredibly useful exercise. Now, when my secondary characters are off-screen, they won’t be like puppets: useless unless I have my hand up their asses. (Wait. What?)
Inevitably, my favorite character in (insert show/book/movie/fandom here) is a secondary character, but I’ve yet to quite capture a good supporting cast. I think this might be the secret: giving them lives outside of recorded events, especially when the tale is told in a limited p.o.v. (in this case, third-person limited, probably to two characters max, barring the epilogue). Of course, it does help that I’ve known these characters for 13 years, but still, they were never this vibrant before.
Now, to figure out how to make the main character likable and not just a whiner. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
The perfect tools
My personal writersense tends to air on the technological side of things rather than the traditional. I think much faster than I can write by hand (I never took many handwriting courses growing up), so my 120-wpm typing speed is really helpful in that department. Yet there are times when hands-to-keyboard just doesn’t feel right. I can’t connect as well with the material if I don’t write it down by hand. (This holds true of taking notes and making lists as well.)
I went out yesterday and “splurged” on some perfect tools for my outlining process: a simple Mead college-ruled notebook (green cover, of course), a set of five different-colored highlighters, and two fantastic Pilot G-2 pens with gel roller ink. No strain on my hand for prolonged periods of writing and permission to be messy (i.e. no fancy journal cramping my style)? I think yes!
I’m well on my way to seven solid pages of handwritten notes in just one lunch break, one slow afternoon at the help desk, and one early early morning. I’d say this is a satisfying start.
